Why the Affordable Care Act Has Allowed Women to Pursue Their Dream Jobs
Why the Affordable Care Act Has Allowed Women to Pursue Their Dream Jobs – At the White House this week, they’re celebrating the more than 16 million people who now have health care, surpassing their goals for the first five years of the Affordable Care Act.
Not only has the ACA made health care possible for those who previously couldn’t afford it, but also a surprising demographic has emerged as major beneficiaries.
According to Bess Evans, associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, their inboxes have been flooded with letters, including those from women who’d been trapped in jobs they stayed in for the health benefits until the ACA set them free.
Theresa Urban, of Arlington, VA, who last year left her federal contracting job to become an independent consultant when she was able to get health coverage, in spite of suffering from two autoimmune diseases—a “precondition” that would have earned her a swift rejection from insurers in the past wrote,“I feel liberated!”
Health care for women is much more expensive than for women. In 2012, a 25-year-old woman could be expected to pay 81 percent more for health insurance than a man, even for a policy that did not include maternity coverage. And 92 percent of health insurance plans in the individual market were gender-rated—meaning 40-year-old women paid more than 40-year-old men for coverage, according to research from The National Women’s Law Center.
The ACA is addressing this issue.
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